11 February 2008

Franchisors grow a backbone

People are vital to the success of your franchise. After all, it's unlikely you started a franchise simply to raise capital; rather, it was probably to unlock people productivity through local, hands-on ownership.

As a franchisor you want to improve the speed of adoption of new initiatives and adherence to standards as well as providing support, training and improved communication to your franchisees.

However, the traditional relationship model between a franchisor and the franchisees and their employees is often linear, resulting in slow reaction times, bottlenecks in communication and risk of incompliance.

In best practice franchise systems, human relationships are instead built as a system Retailstar calls The Backbone.

The Backbone, powered by Retailstar's Versity platform, is an approach that fosters first hand, one-to-one communication at all levels of the system between all stakeholders. It promotes 360 degree feedback and - due to the lack of filtering - 100% clarity in each stakeholder's understanding of success.

At the heart of the system is how best to unlock the power of your people to improve profit.

In a nutshell, The Backbone can help you:

• Establish and maintain the purpose and values of your system at all levels so that everyone understands why the business exists,


• Provide an entry path from recruitment to activation for new staff,


• Provide a bridge between all levels of people,


• Communicate standards and ensure comprehension and support,


• Works for everyone from the two hour a week casual to the CEO,


• Provide no-hassle training,


• Build unconscious competence through drills, comprehension testing and constant reinforcement, and


• Create a smooth communication gateway that ensures each individual only receives the communication that is relevant to them in their role.

About Retailstar

Retailstar is the specialist retail brand of Workstar Pty Ltd.

Many of the region's leading employers use Workstar's award winning technology, learning content and consulting services to deliver increased sales, productivity and compliance, whilst reducing training and recruitment costs. Workstar has also been awarded major national and international multimedia projects in education and training and has received global recognition for its solutions and impact on business success.

For further information contact retailstar@workstar.com.au